Obstacles to Church Planting Movements by David Garrison

If villages are made of bamboo, then church buildings are made of bamboo. In urban areas, cell or house churches emulate family structures instead of a congregational structure that requires expensive buildings used exclusively for worship meetings. CPM practitioners evaluate every aspect of each church start with the question: “Can this be reproduced by these believers?” If the answer is “no,” then the foreign element is discarded.

5. Subsidies creating dependency
Money is not inherently evil. It has a vital role to play in the support of missionaries and promotion of things lost people or new believers cannot do for themselves. Any time the gospel is introduced to a new people group, external support is required. The problem is when outside funding creates dependency among new Christians, stifling their initiative and quenching a Church Planting Movement.

Proper use of external funds might include financing outreach to an unreached people, development of gospel literature, radio programming and broadcasts, production of the JESUS film, Scripture translation, gospel television, cassettes, CDs, etc. When well-intentioned outsiders prop up growth by purchasing buildings or subsidizing pastors’ salaries, they limit the capacity of the movement to reproduce itself spontaneously and indigenously.

6. Extra-biblical leadership requirements
Whenever well-intentioned missionaries, churches or denominational leaders impose requirements for church leaders that exceed those stipulated by the New Testament, a Church Planting Movement is impeded.

New Testament models are found in Christ’s selection of the twelve disciples (Matt. 4:18-22) and Paul’s criteria for bishops and deacons (1 Timothy 3). It is striking that moral character and willingness to follow Christ are given much greater weight than theological training or academic degrees.

7. Linear, sequential thought and practice
It is natural for missionaries to think in terms of sequential steps in church planting. For example, first you learn the language, then you develop relationships, then you share a witness, then you disciple believers, then you congregationalize, then you raise up leaders, then you begin another church start, etc. However, missionaries who have successfully navigated Church Planting Movements describe a different, nonlinear unfolding of the movement.

They insist on the importance of witnessing from day one, even before the language is mastered. Rather than waiting for conversion, missionaries disciple the lost into conversion. By the time they’ve become believers, the new converts already have been participating in cell churches for some time and already have acquired a vision for starting churches! Church Planting Movements occur when all of the various elements of a Church Planting Movement are under way simultaneously.

8. Planting “frog” rather than “lizard” churches
Yes, this is a metaphor. Frog churches perceive themselves as ends in themselves, sitting fat and complacent on a hill or lily pad (or main street), expecting the lost to come to them in search of salvation. Frog churches hold meetings in places where they feel comfortable and require the lost to adapt to their froggy world. Lizard churches are always pursuing the lost. Adaptable and ready for action, they move quickly into the world through cracks and crevices seeking the lost. Lizard